Sonoma’s Cultural and Fine Arts Commission of Sonoma will hold a mid-November reception to honor Linda Rawls, recently named 2008 Sonoma Treasure Artist of the Year. Since 1983, the Sonoma Treasure Artist has been selected and recognized for outstanding achievement in a chosen artistic medium,... Continue

A Colorado-based religious organization’s tactics to defeat gay marriage in California are getting support from Valley churches – and raising questions about the separation of church and state. At issue is Proposition 8, which would change the current California state constitution’s definition of marriage. In 2000,... Continue

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District is having a second go at passing an ordinance to slightly increase the sales tax for local residents in the two counties, in order to resurrect train service between Cloverdale and Larkspur.   The ordinance was close to passing... Continue

It was touted as a Sonoma County League showdown that had big time league title implications. Casa Grande would be amped up on their homecoming to try and take down the Dragons and Sonoma would try to take down the Gauchos for the second year... Continue

Voters who won’t be able to make it to the polls on Nov. 4 will have until Oct. 28 to file a mail-in ballot request with the county Registrar of Voters. “Voting by mail is easy, convenient, and a great way to beat the crowds... Continue

A burned-out air-conditioning fan caused alarm but no injuries this afternoon at the Sonoma Valley Community Health Center in Sonoma. “We just started noticing smoke in one of the exam rooms, coming from the ceiling,” site manager Claudia Urbino said, adding that the incident happened... Continue

Had it been an actual emergency, they wouldn’t have stopped for pizza. The group lunch yesterday inside the Sonoma Police Department’s Emergency Operations Center came halfway through “Operation Silver Sentinel,” an eight-county Bay Area disaster drill set two days after a pair of massive quakes... Continue

The picnic table on which the dying Luis Miranda lay a year ago was strewn with flowers and candles and surrounded by a quiet crowd of nearly 100 people last night at Maxwell Farms Regional Park. “It is good to be together tonight, and it... Continue

In a small office at the Sonoma Police Department, YWCA counselor Yuka Kamiishi shows off a few T-shirts bearing various messages of pain and healing: “LEFT ME ALONE IN THE DARK” reads one, while another proclaims, “I am strong!” The shirts – neatly packed into... Continue